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- KFC Made $1B and Paid $0 in Federal Tax
KFC Made $1B and Paid $0 in Federal Tax
just added the borders
I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.
So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.
In this issue:
Trump says tariffs can replace the income tax.
How KFC and Taco Bell pulled off $1B in profit and $0 in federal tax.
OpenAI is about to burn $218B.
- Ledger Lowdown Team
WTF of the Day🤯
Trump Wants Tariffs to Replace the Income Tax. Here’s the Math.
At the SOTU last night, Trump said tariffs will eventually replace the income tax. He’s been saying this for months, now he’s saying it from the podium.
Here’s why it doesn’t work: the U.S. collects roughly $2.2–$2.5 trillion per year in individual income taxes. Tariff revenue at current levels is tiny by comparison. To replace that with tariffs, you’d need extremely high, broad based rates on imports. At those levels, imports and the underlying tax base collapse, so the revenue you’re counting on disappears.
On top of that, the White House is also talking about “rebating” some tariff proceeds back to companies, which makes the math even harder.
What actually matters, he also announced new tax cuts to be moved through reconciliation. That’s real. The direction is lower corporate and personal rates again. Watch that bill. It’s the part that will directly affect your clients’ effective rates and planning, not the promise that tariffs will one day let us “kill” the income tax.
What’s poppin in accounting🍿
KFC and Taco Bell Made $1 Billion and Paid $0 in Taxes. Legally.
Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut) just reported about $1 billion of U.S. pretax profits last year and no federal income tax on those profits.
How? First, the Trump‑era and 2025 tax changes slashed their effective rate. Second, they shifted Pizza Hut’s intellectual property from the U.S. to Malta, a European tax haven where multinationals can face effective rates as low as 5%. That move generated a disclosed $89 million “net tax benefit,” buried in the footnotes and described as “simplifying the organizational footprint.”
It’s not their first time, in 2021 they moved key KFC intellectual property to Switzerland and disclosed a $187 million tax benefit from that transaction.
All of this is legal, and it’s not just Yum. If you have multinational clients, this playbook offshoring IP to low‑tax jurisdictions and layering on generous U.S. deductions and credits, is being used aggressively right now and is worth understanding.
Weekly Trend Chart 📊
OpenAI's Planned Cash Burn Is Insane
OpenAI is planning to burn $218 billion from 2026 to 2029.
Read that again. $218 billion. That’s 23x what Tesla burned during its chaos years. And it’s $111 billion more than OpenAI projected just two quarters ago. The plan doubled. In months.
This isn’t “move fast and break things.” This is “bet the planet.” They’re assuming revenue hits $280 billion by 2030. From ChatGPT subs, APIs, enterprise agents, ads, maybe even hardware. Smart speakers. Smart lamps. Everything.
If you run a firm, pay attention. When one company is willing to lose this much money, pricing gets weird. Margins get squeezed. Clients expect AI baked into everything.
Don’t build your own models. Don’t chase hype tools. Build workflows around the winners and charge for implementation. Let them burn the $218B. You sell the shovel.
Meme of the Day😂
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